General Business Discussions

fourseasonlawns said "buy the biggest and best of everything.
Anything from your weed-eater, edger and blower, to your truck and trailer.
the only thing biggest doesn't apply to, is your mower. but you better buy the best.
spend the money now, or spend it later in labor or repairs/replacement."

allseasonturf said "Went into a different trade. This business is just flooded hands in the work, every where you look a truck with a trailer full a mowing equipment. Now I know folks will say theres plenty of work to go around, but is there really ?"

Richard Martin said "I would have (and still can if the mood strikes me) hired a crew to take care of my "every day" lawns and hired a helper to work with me on my #1 jobs. I have over the years turned away so much work it's not funny just because I didn't want to service a particular yard for whatever reason. I could have hired people to do this work and put the money in my pocket."

AltaLawnCare said "There might be plenty of work to do, but because of "Supply and Demand" the most common work is priced on rock bottom. Mow onlys are a dead loss in my area, add that to too many LCOs (and "wanna bes") and low household income and you have a great formula for failure.

What Richard Martin said above is where I'm at...some realistic priced work is FINALLY coming around to me. More and more landscaping, lawn applications, and renovations.

I could write a book on what I'd do differently!

1, Have a good estimating system that covers my true costs well, and know what the market will bear.
2, Have a good estimating system that covers my true costs well, and know what the market will bear. Yes its that important!
3, Start out with lower overhead.
4, Take on residential mow onlys that are grouped together only.
5, Instead of chasing dead-end work, be patient and let the better work come to me.
6, Market premium services...not mow only.
7, Get licensed to spray earlier.
8, Delegate more work earlier.
9, Get a job with a landscape company before starting up..and see how hard the work really is.
10, Keep business debt to a minimum."